LEO JONKER TO RECEIVE THE FIRST CMS EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD

OTTAWA, Ontario - The winner of the Canadian Mathematical
Society's first
Excellence in Teaching Award
is Dr. Leo Jonker from the
Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Queen's University. The award
will be presented at the Society's
2004 Summer Meeting in Halifax (June
13-15).

Thomson Nelson, a leading Canadian publisher, and Thomson Brooks/Cole, a
Thomson Higher Education brand and premier provider of educational materials
for mathematics and science - both part of The Thomson Corporation - have
partnered with the CMS to create the Excellence in Teaching Award for
post-secondary undergraduate teaching in mathematics. The award recognizes
sustained and distinguished contributions in teaching at the post-secondary
undergraduate level at a Canadian institution.

"Excellence in research and development starts with excellence in education.
The CMS Excellence in Teaching Award focuses on the recipient's merit as a
teacher and his or her impact on generations of students, scientists and
future teachers," said Christiane Rousseau, CMS President.

"It is an honor for us to partner with the Canadian Mathematical Society in
sponsoring this prestigious award," said George Bergquist, president of
Thomson Nelson. "The award is an excellent vehicle for recognizing the
critical role teachers play in bringing to life the learning resources
publishers create, using them to meaningfully touch the lives of their
students."

Leo Jonker's performance in teaching is exceptional and his teaching of
engineers and of elementary school teachers is particularly remarkable. One
of his great successes is the Introductory Engineering calculus course. Using
a combination of strategies (well-trained tutors, carefully planned tutorials,
superb lectures, and interactive course notes specially developed for the
course), Jonker succeeded in raising the students' enthusiasm for mathematics.
Particularly successful was his switch to undergraduate students as tutors in
this large course. For this work, Leo Jonker has been awarded the Applied
Science First Year Teaching and learning Award four times since 1998.

A second great success is Leo Jonker's work with elementary school students
and prospective elementary school teachers. More than 20 years ago he started
working with students in a local area elementary school. Over the years he
has built up a series of enrichment tasks which have since appeared in two
volumes. These books, aimed at grade 7 and 8 students, are intended to open
the students' eyes to the beauty and power of mathematical ideas. More
recently, Leo Jonker decided to combine his enrichment work with his concern
for mathematics anxiety among elementary school teachers to establish a new
course, Fundamental Concepts in Elementary Mathematics for Teachers. The
audience of this course, consisting almost entirely of students with little or
no university mathematics, very quickly grew to over 50 students. At the same
time, his contacts in the elementary schools enabled him to find placements in
which these students conduct enrichment classes, in pairs. Former students
all say that the course has transformed their vision of mathematics. "He
essentially changed us from a bunch of non-math minded students who lacked
confidence in our abilities to teach it effectively, to a group of people who
were excited and eager to go into our schools every week and teach math to our
students" said Ryanne Flattery, one of his enthusiastic students.

Leo Jonker summarizes his teaching objectives as follows: "Love of the
subject, love of its beauty and its power, should be the primary motivation
for all mathematics education and the basis of all communication between
teacher and student. The beauty of the subject can be equally evident at all
levels of the education system." One of his first year engineers wrote of his
classroom experience: "It is like painting an entire picture for us rather
than just drawing one object in the middle of the canvas. It helps us
understand the concepts behind the method we are using and the very nature of
the problem itself. I walk out of his lectures thinking to myself - Wow! I
understand this!"

Leo Jonker completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the
University of Toronto, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1967. Following a
postdoctoral position at the University of California, he has been at Queen's
University since 1969. He was Head of the Department from 1990 to 1995. His
field of research is dynamical systems and he has combined an active research
career, including the supervision of several graduate students, with his
commitment to education. He is regularly invited to give talks on pedagogy.
Leo Jonker has received a number of Teaching Awards at Queen's University,
including the 1997 W.J. Barnes Teaching Excellence Award, the 1999 Alumni
Teaching Award, and the Engineering Society's Golden Apple in 2000. In 2000,
he was a recipient of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty
Associations' Award for Excellence in Teaching.

About the Canadian Mathematical Society

Founded in 1945, the Canadian Mathematical Society is the main national
organization whose goal is to promote and advance the discovery, learning, and
application of mathematics. The Society's activities cover the whole spectrum
of mathematics: scientific meetings and publishing of research material,
education at all levels, popularization of mathematics. The education
activities include competitions, mathematics camps in all provinces, posters
for students, meetings, etc. The CMS organizes national Fora in mathematical
education. For more details: (www.cms.math.ca).

About Thomson Corporation, Thomson Nelson and Thomson Brooks/Cole

The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com), with 2003 revenues of $7.6
billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to
business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added
information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in
the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education,
reference information, corporate training and assessment, scientific research
and healthcare. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson has
approximately 43,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130
countries. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and
Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). Its learning businesses and
brands serve the needs of individuals, learning institutions, corporations and
government agencies with products and services for both traditional and
distributed learning. Thomson Nelson (www.nelson.com) is a leading provider of
books and online resources for the educational market in Canada, maintaining
over 30 interactive Web sites and publishing a wide range of core and
supplemental electronic products. Thomson Brooks/Cole (www.brookscole.com) is
a leading provider of higher education textbooks, software, and Internet
materials for mathematics, science, and statistics.